FOLKWAYS RECORDS FSS 37450

HEnRY COWELL Complete Works for Violin & Piano Suite Hymn & Fuguing Tune No. 16 I Sonata David Sockson. violin I Dwight Peltzer. piano

J\rchivat Property Smithsoniao Institution

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Service

FOLKWAYS RECORDS FSS 37450

Dwight Peltzer David Sackson photo - Peter Simoll

photo - Marla Watennan

For the first time the complete recording of Henry Cowell's violin and piano music. These important and exciting works of sheer lyric beauty will be of particular interest to all music lovers. The dedicated artists, David Sackson, violinist and Dwight Peltzer, pianist have in­fused these compositions with a vitality that reflects the protean stature of the composer.

SIDE ONE SIDE TWO SONATA SUITE

Band 1. Largo Band 2. Allegretto

Band 1. Hymn - Largo Band 2. In Fuguing Style -

Allegro maestoso Band 3. Adante tranquillo Band 4. Allegro marcato Band S. Andante calmato Band 6. Presto

Band 3. Ballad - Lento cantabile Band 4. Jig - vivace

HYMN AND FUGUING TUNE NO. 16

Band 7. Hymn - Moderato Band 8 . Fuguing Tune - Allegro

Band S. Finale - vivace

HENRY COWELL 1897-196S ' Henry Cowell, one of America's first avant-garde com­posers, led a singularly bold and creative life that, over a period of half a century, encompassed a vast explora­tion of every means of producing and organizing musical sound, ranging from the early piano "tone-cluster" pieces through nineteen symphonies and more than a dozen "Hymn and Fuguing Tunes" for various combinations. Add to this Cowell's work as teacher, pioneer, ethno­musicologist, writer, tireless promoter of the fresh and new in music, and a truly protean figure emerges.

As Richard Franko Goldman noted in a memorial tribute to Henry Cowell published in the Spring-Summer 1966 issue of Perspectives of New Music:

Recorded at CUE RECORDINGS, N.Y.C. 1980 Recording Engineer: Mike Sobol ACOURE process by Harvey Lentchner, H.E.L. Labs

Personal representative for David Sackson Guy Freedman, Suite 348 New York Sheraton 870 Seventh Ave. New York, N. Y. 10019 (212) 582-6080

®©1980 FOLKWAYS RECORDS & SERVICE CORP. 43 W. 61st ST. , NY.C., 10023 N.Y., U.S.A.

HEnRY COWELL Complete Works for Violin & Piano Suite I Hymn & Fuguing Tune No. 161 Sonata David Sockson. violin I Dwight Peltzer. piano DESCRIPTIVE NOTES ARE INSIDE POCKET

FOLKWAYS RECORDS FSS 37450

FOLKWAYS RECORDS Album No. FTS37450 © 1981 by Folkways Records & Service Corp., 43 West 61st St., NYC, USA 10023

HEnRY COWELL Complete Waks for Violin & Piano Suite I Hymn & Fuguing Tune No. 161 Sonata David Socksm. violin 1 Dwight Peltzer. piano

The Man 1897-1965 Henry Cowell, one of America's first avant-garde composers, led a

singularly bold and creative life that, over a period of half a cen-

tury, encompassed a vast exploration of every means of producing and

organiz.ing musical sound, ranging from the early piano "tone-cluster"

pieces through nineteen symphonies and more than a dozen "Hymn and

Fuguing Tunes" for various combinations. Add to this Cowell's work

as teacher, pioneer, ethno-musicologist, writer, tireless promoter of

the fresh and new in music, and a truly protean figure emerges.

As Richard Franko Goldman noted in a memorial tribute to Henry Cowell

published in the Spring-Summer 1966 issue of ~~ Il.f. New Music:

"Henry Cowell was a mover and one of the enliveners of music in our time. All of us, whatever our musical tastes and practices, owe him a great deal. He helped two generations to see and think and hear, and he helped to create and build a foundation for modern music in America. This is not a small achievement; it is a gigantic one and should not be forgotten."

Born in 1897 in Menlo Park, California, of an Irish father and a mother

born in Iowa, Cowell started his musical life on the violin, and already

before the age of eight was recognized as a musical prodigy. Shortly

after, however, young Henry's love for the violin was replaced by his

newly-discovered love for the piano, which remained the major instru-

ment throughout his life and launched his career as a composer.

At sixteen, Cowell started his formal studies in composition with Charles

Seeger at the University of California, Berkeley. It should be noted

that Cowell had already written more than one hundred pieces by this

time. Seeger recognized a musical spirit that was already determined

and developed. Since Cowell had produced works combining elements of

polytonality, dissonantcounterpoint, harmony and atonality, Seeger knew

that Cowell could not benefit and grow through orthodox music~ disci-

pline; that if it were to be disciplined at all, it must be derived solely

from its own unorthodox creation. This mental discipline was reflected in

Cowell's highly original book, New Musical Resources, published in 1919

when Cowell was twenty-two years old.

In addition to his work with Seeger in California, Cowell also studied

with Goetschius in New York and with Schoenberg in Berlin. It is inter-

esting to note that many of Cowell's theories were already developed and

published before Schoenberg's new techniques were known in this country.

Throughout his life one of Cowell's abiding interests was ethnic music,

not only the Celtic tradition which was transmitted through the songs

and tales his Irish father sang and told (interestingly, almost every

Scherzo Cowell wrote embodied the spirit of Jigs and Reels), but the

music of Asia and the Orient as well. Cowell's genius enabled him to cap-

ture the essence of ethnic music, be it a Raga from India or the quarter-

tone music from Japan, and translate these indigenous sounds into Western

notation.

Cowell is most readily known for his invention of new and unusual sounds

which he called "tone-clusters", achieved through the employment of the

whole hand, fist or forearm on the keyboard. It is fascination to note

that Bela Bartok heard Cowell play during one of Cowell's concert tours

of Europe, and after hearing the American's revolutionary "tone~cluster"

technique, the Hungarian composer asked Cowell's permission to use this

technique in one of his own compositions.

From 1949 on Cowell explored the possibilities inherent in early

American musical culture which resulted in a neo~Baroque form called by

Cowell "Hymn and Fuguing Tune". The slow, stately modal style of folk

ballads from the mountains of the Southeastern United States, themselves

dating from Elizabethan times, was ~mirably juxtaposed to f~t, gay,

polyphonic tunes employed by Colonial American composers. He did not

use exact quotations from these American sources, but the spirit of both

is unmistakably there in numerous works for many combinations of instru~

ments and is especially prevalent in the Violin Sonata.

One of Cowell's important pioneering endeavors and one with perhaps

the most far~reaching effect on later generations of young musicians

was in composing original works for Band, thus opening up a new field

for other contemporary composers. Today in America there is hardly a

High School or College Band Director interested in contemporary music

who does not have in his library a large catalogue of original works

for Band to enhance his programs by such composers, in addition to

Cowell, as Milhaud, William Schuman, Grainger, Creston, Tansman, Tcher~

epnin, and many others.

Cowell's continuing championship of new music by other composers ~ a

fact of his life which cannot be overemphasized. In addition to his own

vast body of work (well over a thousand compositions), he was a constant

promoter of perfo~ces of contemporary music as well as lecturer,

teacher·, musicologist, editor and author. His activities on behalf of

contemporary music took Cowell to all corners of the world. He was, .in

2

fact, one of the first, if not indeed the first, American composer to

represent the United States on tours overseas through the performance

of his own works, both for piano solo as well as soloist with orchestra.

These tours, sponsored by the State Department commencing in 1956, made

of Cowell for some years by far the most widely-known American composer

in Europe and Asia and he ~ the first American composer to be published

in the Soviet Union.

Among his tireless activities was the founding and fostering in 1929

of the publication New Music Quarterly, dedicated to the publication

and recording of new works by North and South American composers. This

magazine flourished through the Forties and the works of such composers

as Antheil, Chavez, Copland, Richard Franko Goldman, Ives, Ornstein,

Piston, Rigger and Slonimsky were given performances through the League

of Composers and the Pan-American Association. In addition Cowell serv­

ed as president of the American Composers Alliance for four years. He

was among the first to recognize the unusual genius of Charles Ives,

whom he championed in his book on Ives which he co-authored with his

wife, Sidney Robertson Cowell. This work was not published until 1955,

although much of this material on Ives was published in 1933 in Cowell's

American Composers 2!l America,p Music.

Cowell was the recipient of numberous awards, among which were his Gug~

gen heim Fellowships for the years 1930-31, his election to the Natio~l

Academy of Arts and Letters in 1959, plus two Honorary Doctorates. In

1962 on the occasion of his sixty~fifth birthday, Cowell was showered

with congratulatory telegrams from around the world, including one from

President John F. Kennedy which read:

'~Ou hold a place of high honor in Americ&P arts, and you have been a source of stimulus to many students and performers of music. I join with your many friends and admirers in ~ying my respects and congratulations."

Cowell, the dedicated proselytizer, is best characterized by the astute

and witty words of Nicolas Slonimsky, the noted musicologist and compos­

er, written during Cowell's active years:

"It is rare to find a crusader in a big cause whose intellect is as strong as his battle-ax. Not all crusaders are more interested in their cause than in themselves •••• ln managing various non-lucrative enterprises (for the benefit of musi­cians other than himself) he is as much of an innovator as he is in composing his own and administrating other con­temporaries' music •••• He works with determination unlessened by the realization that the world, even that part of the world known by the name of musical, is little flexible. But Henry Cowell would not be himself if he did not follow the path of most resistance."

Henry Cowell's thoughts about his art are perhaps best expressed by

himself:

"I believe in music, in its spirituality, its exaltation, its ecstatic nobility, its humor, its power to penetrate to the basic fineness of every human being. As a creator of music, I contribute my religious, philosophical and ethical beliefs in terms of the world of creative sound - that sound which flows through the mind of the composer with a concentrated in­tensity that baffles description, the sound which is the very life of the composer, and which is the sum and substance of his faith and feeling."

Cowell once said, "I like to think that Charles Ives was right when he

declared, 'There is always something more to be said'. For myself, I

have more ideas than I can ever use. This is a happy state and I wish

the same to all of you."

3

The Music These works for violin and piano, written over a period

of a quarter of a century from 1924 through 1958, show

Cowell as a "classic" composer, writing "pure" music,

rather than the "revolutionary"effects for which he is

famous. Here Cowell reaches back to early American and

Irish influences of his childhood, now enrichened by the

life experience of a mature composer.

SUITE FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO Published in 1926 by Breitkopf & Haertl

I !£..&2.

This movement, which suggests the Neo-Classic style, is built

on broad and bold lines. The sweeping lyricism of the violin

melody is enriched by the chord-block structure in the piano.

II Allegretto

Here the composer has written one of his most intriguing

movements. He interweaves an unusual pattern of triple

meter in the violin against duple meter in the piano, thus

creating an original and startling effect. \

III Andante tranguillo

Cowell, as though in a reverent bow to Handel, has produced

a work which, in its serenity and nobility, equals the

loftiest moments of the great German-born master himself.

IV Allegro marcato

Although the violin evokes the Baroque in spirit, the key-

board recalls the tumultuous and joyous ringing of church

bells.

V Andante calmato

Cowell has captured the poignant and noble spirit of some

of the great slow movements of Johan~ Sebastian Bach.

VI Presto

This exuberant finale is a fitting conclusion to a singularly

original treatment of the classical suite.

HYMN AND FUGUING TUNE NO. 16 Published by C. F. Peters 1968

I ~ - Moderato

The stark, modal harmonies capture the spirit of early

American church music.

[I Fuguing Tune - Allegro

This rollicking, boisterous tune is tossed back and forth

between the two instruments with masterly contrapuntal

dexterity, ending in a bold and brilliant coda.

SONATA FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO Published by Associated Music Publishers 1947

In the early 1940's the Hungarian violinist Joseph Szigeti heard from

Bela " Bartok about Cowell's new musical techniques. Szigeti wrote to

Cowell to ask for a work for violin and piano for his approaching

Carnegie ~l concert. Cowell's schedule waa too heavy for him to

undertake a new project at that moment, so he took the melody written

for a poem by his father, called ''How Old is Song"," and simply copied

it out~ minus its text~ for Szigeti.

There was some correspondence between the two men about folk fiddling

styles, Szigeti having once undertaken to learn the gypsy style of

fiddling, and he asked whether Cowell would write for him a larger

4

work which would reflect American folk style and would include some of

the American folk fiddling idiom which Szigeti had heard about. The

result was this Sonata for Violin and Piano, sketched during 1944 and

completed in 1945.

I ~ - Largo

The use of rural American hymnody together with the sweep

of the melodic arch create a mood of unbounded exaltation.

II In Fuguing Style - Allegro maestoso

This highly polyphonic movement, utilizing the skillful

blending of various contrapuntal devices, results in a

movement filled with vigor and thrust.

III Ballad - Lento cantabile

This exquisite melody in its simple beauty and eloquence,

capturing as it does the essence of the true Celtic spirit,

could eas ily become a rival to the famous ''Londonderry Air".

IV ~ - Vivace

Here is a fiddler's delight which evokes the true Irish

spirit of Cowell's forbears. This down-to-earth expression

of country dance literally lifts the listener out of his seat.

V Finale - Vivace

In this movement, a masterpiece of musical construction,

Cowell must have taken keen delight in bringing together

in a final synthesis all the musical elements presented in

the previous movements. At the very end, in ~ moment of

reflection, the composer restates the opening melody of the

work, as though taking leave of his creation with a feeling

of bittersweet nostalgia.

Notes prepared by David Sackson

DAVID SACKSON

David Sacks on graduated with highest honors from the'Institute of Musical

Art, New York City, where he studied with William Kroll. At graduation

he received the Eli~abeth Sprague Coolidge Award in Composition for a

String Quartet. He played with the Kroll Sextet as violist and then

joined the Gordon String Quartet as second violinist. He resigned in

1940 to accept the conductorship of the Charleston (S. C.) String S~

phony, a group which he developed into the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.

5

During World War II he was assigned to the Air Force under Glenn Miller,

serving as composer and arranger as well as instrumentalist. Upon leav-

ing the Service, he conducted such musicals as Carousel, Paint Your

Wagon and South Pacific. He studied orchestra repertoire with Rudolph

Gans and composition with Vittorio Rieti. In recent years he has

appeared as associate conductor of the Chilean Ballet and has been musi-

cal director of the Phoenix Chamber Orchestra and the Hudson Valley Sym-

phony Orchestra.

The Phoenix String Quartet which Mr. Sackson founded has not only record-

ed the complete chamber music works of Arriaga, but has recently recorded

the three string quartets of the Swedish composer, Franz Berwald (1796-

1868), and was engaged by Serenus Records to record works of outstanding

contemporary American composers.

In addition to his Quartet activities and teaching, Mr. Sackson makes

frequent appearances as soloist. The New York ~ characteri~ed his

playing at a concert at Carnegie Recital Hall as "music making of a

very high order indeed."

Personal representative for David Sackson Guy Freedman, Suite 348 New York Sheraton 870 Seventh Ave, New York, N, Y, 10019 (212) 582-6080

DWIGHT PELTZER

Dwigh~ Peltzer, acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic, appears

regularly with major symphony orchestras in the United States, Canada,

and Europe. During the 1979-80 season he made a triumphent debut with

Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony. Mr. Peltzer has appeared at the

Edinburgh Festival, the Cheltenham Festival, London's Wigmore and

Queen Eli~abeth Halls and New York's Lincoln Center. He is shortly

scheduled to record several programs of American music for the B.B.C.,

inclduing one in honor of Samuel Barber's 70th ·birthday.

6

Mr. Peltzer has linked his performing career with a variety of teaching

posts and residencies, including among others, the San Francisco Conserv­

atory, the Victoria School of Music, the Philadelphia Music Academy and

the Universities of Illinois and Southern Illinois. As recipient of

two consecutive Fulbright Fellowships, he worked with Edwin Fischer in

Swit~erland and with Karl Richter in Germany.

With both the Alabama State Council on the Arts and Humanities and the

Rhode Island Council on the Arts Mr. Peltzer has been affiliated as per­

forming artist under grants from Sears Roebuck and the Martha Baird Rocke­

feller Fund, respectively. He was recently featured soloist at Alice

Tully Hall during the Composers' Theater's sixth annual May Festival.

He has recorded contemporary piano and chamber works for Serenus and

Vox Records and has been cited by one critic for his "dazzling technique

and profound insight" as a pianist.

LITHO IN U.S.A. ~-